Tibetan medicine--constitutional types.

Right at the start of research into Tibetan medicine, it is vital to determine the medical terminology and the latter has to be taken from sources. The starting-point is the standard work of the Tibetan doctors, the book rGyud bzhi = Four Treatises (abbreviated title). It is from the texts of this book that we learn the the basic principle of Tibetan medicine is the three-part division. The three humours are wind (rlung), bile (mkhris pa) and phlegm (bad kan). Some of the important characteristics of the three humours are to be found in Part 1 or the rGyud bzhi, in which the System of Tibetan medicine is also described: Chapter 3 (Root A): healthy organism, diseased organism. Chapter 4 (Root B): observation, palpation, questioning. Chapter 5 (Root C): nutrition, behaviour, medicines, treatments. We have arranged the characteristics of the three humours in accordance with the three roots of the System. The terms which have been derived from the text show clearly that the three humours are, through diagnostic methods, recognized as types to which specific kinds of treatment are assigned so that one can speak of there being a doctrine of constitution. A systemic description is, therefore, very important in that it is obvious that without a recognition of the types, treatment is impossible.